August 30, 2024 Coats Museum News
Earlier in a Coats Museum News column you learned that the restoration of Charles II to the English throne marked a turning point in both English and colonial history. Recall that Charles II gave North Carolina to eight Lord Proprietors for their financial help in restoring him to the throne. This period in history was known as the Age of Restoration (1600-1686).
By July 25, 1729, North Carolina had become a royal colony. Proprietary and corporate colonies had never been satisfactory to the Crown or to other English governmental agencies as early as 1680. For several decades the Carolina Proprietors resisted the royal efforts but eventually seven of the eight lords drew up a plan to sell their interests to the crown and hence, the colony became a Royal Colony. Only Lord Granville did not sell.
According to the historians Lefler and Newsome, the next forty years had been marked with change. Expansion of agriculture, industry, trade, some improvement in transportation and the beginning of a crude postal system and a higher standard of living were reflected in better homes, finer furniture, and more and better tools and implements.
There had been a rapid growth of dissenting religious sects and the publication of the first books and newspapers in the colony but there was no significant change in the governmental structure or powers. The Proprietors had been keenly interested in profits but the Crown put major emphasis on the promotion of naval stores and other economic activities that fitted into the British mercantile system. The area was not without political conflict between the assembly and the colonial governor.
During this royal period of 1729-1775, a rapid growth in population occurred in the colony. From about 30,000 white and 6,000 Negroes at the end of the proprietary period in 1729 to 265,000 white and 80,000 Negroes in 1775. The NC royal governor in 1751 reported that new ‘inhabitants seat themselves toward the west and have got near the mountains.”
What was happening in the Lower Cape Fear Valley region? By 1730, the region saw the most increase in population growth. This growth extended from fifty to a hundred miles inward. By 1740, an estimated 3,000 people lived in the Lower Cape Fear region
Steadily the settlement moved up the Cape Fear River and other eastern rivers. By 1733, a small group of people, Highland Scots, was in the Upper Cape Fear. By 1734, the increase in population resulted in the formation of three new counties- Onslow, Edgecomb and Bladen.
Ten years later in 1744, Governor Gabriel Johnston wrote that the Cape Fear Valley was being settled by a “sober and industrious set of people” who were noted for amazing progress in their improvements and that this region was ”the place of greatest trade in the whole province”..
That date was 280 years ago-many, many generations back. Did some of their descendants build the Shaw Halfway House thought to have been built before 1806? Did their descendants live in Coats, Turlington or Barclaysville and attend the Community Fairs held in Coats in 1910 where tools and other items of the Revolutionary era were on display as proven by the Community Fair Booklet that is preserved in the Coats Museum’s Research Library? A wooden tub, a wash board and many other museum items from our past generations can be seen in our museum’s exhibits.
This I do know. The Girl Scouts of Coats had raffled a quilt to support their projects. Dana Pope Coats and Rene Tart assisted. Susan Shumaker was pictured in the October 10, 1994 edition of the Daily Record purchasing a ticket to help support the effort.
William Earl Spivey and the Coats Middle School cheerleaders were two of the Farmers Day parade entries that brought waves from the parade crowds. The death notice of Winfred Robinson, 67, formerly of Coats had died in Rex Hospital was also printed in that edition of the paper.
Christy Barbour, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Junius Benjamin Barbour, of Bailey’s Crossroads area, was engaged to marry Kelly Barbour of Benson. Christy was a 1993 graduate of Campbell University with a degree in home economics with a concentration in interior design. The prospective groom was a 1991 graduate of NCSU with a business management degree. The wedding was planned for November 12th at the St. Mary’s Grove Original Freewill Baptist Church on Raleigh Road, Benson (Daily Record October 12, 1994).
Many of the people I write about I have only heard about but this couple I personally know from my neighborhood and church. We call him “Junior” and his story of his service in Viet Nam brings tears to my eyes as I recall his sharing with me his near death experience on the battle field where the Viet Cong attacked and slaughtered most of his buddies. It was there when an enemy soldier pulled a badly wounded Junior off the ground ready to cut his throat but then let him fall back down to the ground after proclaiming some strange words meaning “Die” . I can’t even fathom the fear and pain that young Junior Barbour experienced as he lay there on that foreign soil. I do know that Junior Barbour lost his leg in that battle but he did not lose his wonderful sense of humor that I witnessed every Sunday that my late H.L. and he shared as they sat in church waiting for services to begin.
Earlier in a Coats Museum News column you learned that the restoration of Charles II to the English throne marked a turning point in both English and colonial history. Recall that Charles II gave North Carolina to eight Lord Proprietors for their financial help in restoring him to the throne. This period in history was known as the Age of Restoration (1600-1686).
By July 25, 1729, North Carolina had become a royal colony. Proprietary and corporate colonies had never been satisfactory to the Crown or to other English governmental agencies as early as 1680. For several decades the Carolina Proprietors resisted the royal efforts but eventually seven of the eight lords drew up a plan to sell their interests to the crown and hence, the colony became a Royal Colony. Only Lord Granville did not sell.
According to the historians Lefler and Newsome, the next forty years had been marked with change. Expansion of agriculture, industry, trade, some improvement in transportation and the beginning of a crude postal system and a higher standard of living were reflected in better homes, finer furniture, and more and better tools and implements.
There had been a rapid growth of dissenting religious sects and the publication of the first books and newspapers in the colony but there was no significant change in the governmental structure or powers. The Proprietors had been keenly interested in profits but the Crown put major emphasis on the promotion of naval stores and other economic activities that fitted into the British mercantile system. The area was not without political conflict between the assembly and the colonial governor.
During this royal period of 1729-1775, a rapid growth in population occurred in the colony. From about 30,000 white and 6,000 Negroes at the end of the proprietary period in 1729 to 265,000 white and 80,000 Negroes in 1775. The NC royal governor in 1751 reported that new ‘inhabitants seat themselves toward the west and have got near the mountains.”
What was happening in the Lower Cape Fear Valley region? By 1730, the region saw the most increase in population growth. This growth extended from fifty to a hundred miles inward. By 1740, an estimated 3,000 people lived in the Lower Cape Fear region
Steadily the settlement moved up the Cape Fear River and other eastern rivers. By 1733, a small group of people, Highland Scots, was in the Upper Cape Fear. By 1734, the increase in population resulted in the formation of three new counties- Onslow, Edgecomb and Bladen.
Ten years later in 1744, Governor Gabriel Johnston wrote that the Cape Fear Valley was being settled by a “sober and industrious set of people” who were noted for amazing progress in their improvements and that this region was ”the place of greatest trade in the whole province”..
That date was 280 years ago-many, many generations back. Did some of their descendants build the Shaw Halfway House thought to have been built before 1806? Did their descendants live in Coats, Turlington or Barclaysville and attend the Community Fairs held in Coats in 1910 where tools and other items of the Revolutionary era were on display as proven by the Community Fair Booklet that is preserved in the Coats Museum’s Research Library? A wooden tub, a wash board and many other museum items from our past generations can be seen in our museum’s exhibits.
This I do know. The Girl Scouts of Coats had raffled a quilt to support their projects. Dana Pope Coats and Rene Tart assisted. Susan Shumaker was pictured in the October 10, 1994 edition of the Daily Record purchasing a ticket to help support the effort.
William Earl Spivey and the Coats Middle School cheerleaders were two of the Farmers Day parade entries that brought waves from the parade crowds. The death notice of Winfred Robinson, 67, formerly of Coats had died in Rex Hospital was also printed in that edition of the paper.
Christy Barbour, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Junius Benjamin Barbour, of Bailey’s Crossroads area, was engaged to marry Kelly Barbour of Benson. Christy was a 1993 graduate of Campbell University with a degree in home economics with a concentration in interior design. The prospective groom was a 1991 graduate of NCSU with a business management degree. The wedding was planned for November 12th at the St. Mary’s Grove Original Freewill Baptist Church on Raleigh Road, Benson (Daily Record October 12, 1994).
Many of the people I write about I have only heard about but this couple I personally know from my neighborhood and church. We call him “Junior” and his story of his service in Viet Nam brings tears to my eyes as I recall his sharing with me his near death experience on the battle field where the Viet Cong attacked and slaughtered most of his buddies. It was there when an enemy soldier pulled a badly wounded Junior off the ground ready to cut his throat but then let him fall back down to the ground after proclaiming some strange words meaning “Die” . I can’t even fathom the fear and pain that young Junior Barbour experienced as he lay there on that foreign soil. I do know that Junior Barbour lost his leg in that battle but he did not lose his wonderful sense of humor that I witnessed every Sunday that my late H.L. and he shared as they sat in church waiting for services to begin.